Luke 17:3

So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

From Background Notes [BN] for March 10^th/11^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The key to this saying from the words of Jesus is 17:3, “So watch yourselves.” The Greek has prosechete eautois, literally, “hold to one another,” an interpretation consistent with the title of this week’s study.  “Be connected to each other” might be an alternate rendering. What leads Jesus to issue this instruction to his followers?

The answer is found in 17:1 where he alerts them to the inevitable causes for sin. He says such causes are “bound to come.” That translation by the NIV attempts to explain a double negative construction: “it is impossible that stumbling blocks do not come.” The words “things that cause people to sin” is a very free paraphrase of the underlying Greek text that simply uses the word skandala, the plural of skandalon which means “trap or snare laid for an enemy.” In the case of Christians, they face significant snares within society crafted to disconnect them from their commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Unable to openly confront and deter Christians through persecution, the world operates in the underworld of seductions and desires. We have a powerful example from the Old Testament of this operating in the case of the Moabites who were unable to defeat Israel through a direct verbal assault delivered by the false prophet Balaam, but then turned to the seductions of the flesh and were successful (see Numbers 22-25 for the full account). The New Testament actually makes reference to this incident in one of the letters to the churches in Revelation (2:14). One role for the church as a fellowship committed to its members is to be on the lookout for outside influences or temptations that undermine the safety and well-being of others in the community.

No one likes to be blind-sided by hostile forces. Still, the familiar words borrowed from Aristotle and excerpted by Don Rumsfeld probably apply here: It’s the “things that you don’t know that you don’t know” that always get you into trouble. Who plans on being ignorant? Apparently lots of people! Perhaps ignorance becomes a planned excuse for plausible denial. Or ignorance removes responsibility to act. Recipients of speeding tickets rarely succeed using the ignorance argument. Jesus tells the community he has called to pay attention to the stumbling blocks — the snares and traps — that might badly affect other people. This is another version of “Watch where you are going!”

Churches hesitate to engage in this kind of proactive attention to the spiritual health of other people. Partly out of fear that they are judging others and partly because they know themselves all too well, members of local congregation fail to “hold to” each other, and the consequence is frequent spiritual tripping and falling.  [BN, 4&5]

Join us this week in Study & Worship at ChicagoFirstChurch of the Nazarene –

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm